Le Premier Fois

"I have noticed that when things happen in one's imaginings, they never happen in one's life."
-Dodie Smith

Finals aren't that far away and I can feel every missing assignment and moment of inconsideration towards my French class, but not as fast as my mother's convincing attitude that I'm an ungrateful person. It's been a while that I've written in a blog, and I'm starting to remember why I stopped writing in one in the first place. But the point of this blog is to move away from the past.

The past likes to sneak itself under my door by passing through my ear and then my mind.

Today on the front page of the Times there was a very interesting article on pesticide used on Dole and Dow farms in Nicaragua that the farmers have claimed resulted in sterility and other health isssues.

"...Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita. Nearly every case ran into the legal doctring forum non conveniens, which says lawsuits should be heard in the countries where the damage occured. Lawyers for the companies convinced judges to transfer the cases to the countries of origin.
In practice, that stalled the lawsuits for years. Complex trials bogged down in ill-equipped Third World courts. Plaintiffs' law firms lacked money to pursue cases in foreign countries.
The companies settled some cases without admitting culpability. In 1992, several firms reached a settlement in which $20 million was paid to 1,000Costa Ricans. In 1997, Dow and other companies paid $41.5 million to 26,000 workers worldwide.
The money was divided among thousands of plaintiffs. After attorneys' fees, some workers received no more than a few hundred dolls."

--T. Christian Miller, from the Los Angeles Times


The facts are scary. I found myself reading through some parts to my mother. Men are called buey "a castrated bull," as found in the article, when they do not give have a children. I knew that there was a big macho culture in Nicaragua. I can tell that whenever I visit with my mother and as she drives a car, people--women, men, children, stare into her car finding it hard to believe that a woman was driving the car.

I'm going back...or at least attempting to go back in June. Since my boss at work hasn't allowed me to go with the days I requested off, I've had to go with the days she can give me. So I went from possibly paying $542 to $777. That's a lot of money. Makes me want to rethink going. But I need to go. I'll go crazy if I don't leave this country soon.